Prenatal Programming?

 

Yesterday I signed Benjamin up for a spring break robotics/Lego day camp.

It is interesting that my son has such a passion for robots, considering his background. And by background, I mean way back . . . before he was even born.

During my entire pregnancy with Benjamin I was teaching communications at a technical institute, and many of my students were studying robotics.

When I initially received this assignment I was more than just a little intimidated. I had never taught technical writing before, but—worse—I’d never even heard of robotics. (I had, of course, heard of robots and assumed that’s what it was all about).

 

Even after a bit of research, though, I had only a fuzzy idea of what my students would be studying outside of my class.

On the first day of school I actually gave them an in-class writing assignment to produce a one-sentence definition of robotics.

Unfortunately this was their first semester in the program and some of their ideas were even fuzzier than mine.

My second semester I had a different group of students who were taking their final courses in the intensive two-year program, and they really knew what robotics was.

I taught them how to write reports and make presentations on their final projects, then watched all the presentations and graded the reports. I learned a lot.

Benjamin was with me through it all, from the size of a sesame seed to the 7-pound-15- ounce boy who was born the day before the semester officially ended.

 

I think he was listening in.

I know people sometimes think that music played to developing babies makes a difference in their brains or that stories read to a fetus become lifelong favorites.

Is it more of a stretch to claim that a baby who listens in on robotics presentations has a natural inclination towards that field?

 

If this is so, we are very fortunate that Ben picked up only what he did, since at least 90 percent of my students were also chain smokers who were very fond of four-letter words.

The more I think about it, the more I think I might want to sit in on the first couple of days of Ben’s camp. After all, I was with him the first time. . . .